"Isn't It Time We Told Her She's Pretty Brilliant Too?"

Photo Credit

Verizon/Makers

"Isn't it time we told her she's pretty brilliant too?" challenges a new thought-provoking ad from Verizon. Sure, a simple "Sweetie, don't get your dress dirty," or "Be careful with that. Why don't you hand that to your brother?" might seem harmless to say to a young girl, but these subtle discouragers have a larger impact on her choices than we think, the commercial suggests. [Tweet this!]

The spot is part of Verizon's "Inspire Her Mind" campaign, a partnership with Makers designed to encourage more girls to get involved with science, technology, engineering, and math—and is narrated by Girls Who Code founder, Reshma Saujani, AdWeek reports. The ad concludes with an alarming statistic from the National Science Foundation: 66 percent of fourth grade girls say they like science and math, but only 18 percent of all college engineering majors are female. Hopefully, campaigns like these will make us think twice about the emphasis we put on being "pretty" and turn around this sad drop-off.

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